Corsairs - An investigation to the bad guys

First, turns out I've been mispelling the main island. It is Teboa, NOT Tebou! Will have to correct my maps, or perhaps it is a local dialect?

Second, this post is about the big bads in the game that will start next week. So players beware: if you can compartmentalize and not use info your characters don't know, all is well. But if you want to be (hopefully!) surprised, then please read no more.

Now that we've taken care of that, I was reading a post from Johnn Four Roleplay who puts out some good advice. Sometimes I even try to read it and apply it. A recent post caught my eye about the villains in your story. We all know the player characters should have goals. In Traveller it is usually credits or a better star ship, or more toys. In the Fantasy Trip, experience and better weapons. The current game one of the players wants to be able to open his blacksmith, so is working towards getting the experience and skills. As I have the Amazing Shops and Inns from Loresmythe, we may be able to use those rules to make it a special place.  Anyway, I feel a good game the characters need an overarching goal beyond surviving the next dungeon. And this post said that the villains need that as well - they have to have a winning end point in mind other than being a thorn in our heroes side. With that in mind, I got a broad outline of the main bad guys in the game and what their end goals are. Or at least a couple of them at any rate.

Corsairs has some broad characterizations for those opposing our characters. Known as scoundrels, it is a way of grouping characteristics and helps to define the playing field. 

Way behind the curtain and pulling the strings we have a Sir Wysym Pycey of the Alderal Empire. He is the one, or at least the most visible one, bribing and corrupting the Council to allow for mining on Teboa. The players may not ever see him except via his henchmen and stooges. His goal is to mine Teboa as long as he can and amass great wealth. He does not care about it sinking into the Molten Sea. He provides the finances and the grand plans. He would be a Governer level scoundrel. 

Now, his primary agent in Teboa is Lady Erin Gysby. She has two real goals: helping to achieve Sir Pycey's goal as well as get enough money to retire a woman of leisure. She has almost enough and is hoping this is her last job. Lady Gysby is Sir Pycey's contact, and lives in a modest estate he maintains in Deathorp, the capital of Teboa. She would be considered a Lieutenant level scoundrel. She has three main contacts she uses to carry out her missions.

She has a 2 master ship which I've yet to name, and it's captain is George Horn and his first mate, Rey Smythe. The captain's first priority is the ship, the second doing Lady Gysby's tasks. The captain would be a Steady Wind level scoundrel, and the  First Mate a Master Gunner. Rey Smythe tells the crew what to do based on what the captain tells him. The crew would be considered Pirates.  I'll have to find some cool deck plans - more image delving!

Lady Gysby also employs an Edmund Altes as a spy and a contact into the rougher edges of society. He would be considered a Smuggler, knowing the ins and outs of the various towns and villages. He has several Picaroons in almost every place. The running footsteps from the previous post would be one of those picaroons.  

The final scoundrel, who may or may not really be a scoundrel, is the head miner Franklin Gavit. He is boss man to dozens of miners and would be a variant on the steady wind scoundrel template. He employs picaroons as miners. 

Lady Erin: 

Captain George Horn:

Edmund Altes, Spy:

All I can say is thank goodness for Pinterest and other image sites! You can find anything on the web!

Corsairs - Game Setup, draft 1

Background

As per the Corasirs background, Teboa is being literally mined to death by the mining magnates of the Alderil Empire to the east. They have bought off enough of the council to obtain more of the magical repellium that allows the sky ships to sail above the Molten Sea. It also happens to keep the floating islands floating above that same sea, and Teboa is slowly sinking into the steaming depths.

The Council

The council consists of a dozen members drawn from all over the island, from Sebury to the far west to Pegate to the north east. The council convenes in Deathorp a week of every month to pursue governance. The remaining three weeks they are at their own estates, generally with a a stack of papers that takes most of the three weeks to go through.

The Council is lead by Sir Dayton Griffiths, a stout and older gentleman with his estates in the farmlands of Chaydale. Constantly smoking one of his prized cigars and not looking his age, Dayton was a Naval officer who returned almost a broken man. For him, the depths that people would go to were disheartening and caused him to return to his family estates, hunting and governing Chaydale. He was voted to to the council a few years later, and through the years rose to the leading position.

Henrich Holmes is from Bregate, His parents were from the northern islands, and he shares their Dwarf nature. Stubborn as he is short and wide, he mines the crystals that are used for timepieces and the navigational tools. His position on the council was achieved just a few years back and he is the most recent council member, though far from the youngest. He and Dayton will often hunt together as well. His niece, Glory Tumblestone, often accompanies them and her uncle to the big city of Deathorp on their private sky ship, the Birdsong. 

There are several other members, but I am saving them for how the game evolves and what is needed. Just needed the council lead, and Heinrich, in various names, has shown up in several of my games. He started as an NPC character in a Fantasy Trip game, managed to get him into the Traveller game, and here he is in Corsairs. I may have to add a Heinrich tag.

The Pull

The various characters are brought to  Griffith's estates in Chaydale. A sprawling farm house with a sky ship dock nearby, the estate has a forest to the east and famrlands as far as the eye can see to the east. Smaller farm houses are scattered about, and one can hear the lowing of cows and oxen, cackling of chickens and the soft sibilant sound of water flowing through raised troughs, similar to the Roman aquaducts. These take water from the mountain springs to irrigate the farm lands. The sky ship they can see docked is a sleek two masted war swoop.

Dayton knows some of the characters personally, others by reputation, and some perhaps via Heinrich, who is at the estate. The characters are brought into his study, where they are both puffing on oversized cigars. Deep chairs surround a table, with maps of Teboa spread out. Floor to ceiling book cases are on one wall, with a library ladder to reach the higher volumes. A broad glass door open to a veranda with expansive views of the farms. A butler brings in the party, who are seated about the table, and wine, water or juices are brought in. In the corner, curled up and reading a book, a young girl occasionally looks up as the conversation starts.

With a gruff clearing of his throat, Sir Griffiths starts. "Gentlemen (and gentlewomen if anyone will be playing a woman. the game doe snot differentiate) I am sorry to say I bring you together for a matter of grave importance. As you know, we've fought, and continue to fight, for Teboa's very life against the threats of the Alderal Empire. While the other empires may be biding their time, Alderal is our most significant threat to our very existence. There are members of the council who, shall we say, have been bought off, and living in largesse beyond what the council and their holdings would pay. They are selling our very right to life away to the highest bidders, and will leave Teboa before it inevitably sinks to a fiery death upon the Molten Seas below."

Heinrich takes a deep puff of his cigar, nodding.

Dayton continues: "We've brought you hear to help with the latest atrocity: there is a new repellium mine in Coastone, backed by the Alderal Empire and Sir Byron Windsor, the scallywag! We've some idea of where. While we cannot act in the providence of the Council " and here Heinrich grunts sarcastically, "we can hire private citizens to accost and destroy this mine with all due haste. You gentlemen I know either personally or by your fine reputation, and believe we can entrust you with the Samue to pursue these villains and strike at the very heart of the corruption in our council!" 

There is suddenly the sound of running steps fading off to the distance, and Glory looks out the bay window she is in and exclaims: "Uncle! A lugger has just landed on the chicken house!"

Ta-Da

And here is where the game starts. Can they catch the runner who has apparently overheard the conversation? Can they then catch the lugger (a smaller ship than the one they saw earlier) before it gets away? These questions and more to be answered in the game!

SOLO - League of Planets: Krim 245-1106 (part 1)

From the journals of Malik:

After finding that tracking device in the gas lines, I think I was the only one with any concerns over it. Especially as this was my first time to actually enter the League of Planets. I've circled it when doing that series a few years back, but never really entered non-Imperial space. The ISS sets all the ports to red zone as they are non-Imperial, but what does that really mean? The Navy also keeps a base out by one of the moons of Eyumiromi by mutual consent,and there is also a League Space Patrol base on the other moon as well as a major one in orbit about Krim. And Krim: so many rumors I heard on Preacep about how their medical science is beyond most of the Imperium's expertise. Hopefully I'll get a chance to visit the Meditech home office. I've visited some of those in the Imperium - expensive real estate and expensive care. But apparently well worth it. Just waiting at the comm board to get out of jump - should be any time now.

The No Refunds comes out of jump just a bit past the 168 hours and is a few hours out from Krim. Malik immediately answers the hails from the Space Patrol and soon a patrol cutter matches speed and links up. Sensors can pick out the high port where the cutter is based in a high orbit about Krim. Several Patrol Officers board and begin the customs inspection. The crew, other than Malik, have been through this before, and are nonchalant about the process, and the Space Patrol maintain a professional stance throughout the inspection. The textiles in the cargo bay bring an appreciative comment from the commanding officer: Krim has little in the way of producing textiles and knows that these will bring the No Refunds a good profit.

Note I did not roll on the ship encounter table for our initial foray to Krim. I wanted to set up the Space Patrol as guarding the perimeters (sort of tough with jump drives but we're still going with that). Krim is a high-technology planet, and has an even higher medical technological level. I have to say I really enjoy Grand Census.

Krim

Tried a version of the T5 system profile. Sort of okay though needs a bit of cleanup and work. Lacking the details about the main world though seems to be an issue for me (and players who don't memorize the UPP stat blocks!)

Size:  3 4960 km diameter, so a very small planet. With the high tech level, grav plating is everywhere
Atmosphere: 1 - trace. Not enough to speak of or even breath.
Hydrographics: 8 - 78% ice-capped world. Not sure what freezes as purple but I thought it an interest color.
Population: A - 10 billion people living here! Arcologies, high ports and probably bases and colonies spread out over the system?
Government: A - charismatic dictator. Why do I keep getting dictators? Though the government rules tend to promote more authoratarian governments as the population increases.
Law Level: 8 - no open carry. Fairly strict law level but considering the lethality of the planet itself, probably a survival mechanism. We can't have the domes blown up!
Tech Level: E - High Interstellar. I'll need to check but I think it is the highest TL in the League.
Starport: B. Though I am going with that is how the Imperium may be ranking this as this is where starships are being made.

Got a really cool starport map from another of 0-Hr / Ryan Wolf's Kickstarters, Port Leonis. Going to borrow that as the standard design for class A and B ports in the League. The concourses will be the class C and perhaps class D ports. So let's take a look at the downport of Krim. There are actually two starports, the commercial one outlined here, and the construction yards which also maintain a high port for those ships that are never intended for planetary landings. The Space Patrol has a perpetual lease from the Port Authority for concourse 24 A&B.

The main hub connects via underground tube transport to the nearby cities. This is also the primary warehousing district and central control that coordinates with the 3 terminals. Each terminal is in turn in charge of the concourses they support, and each concourse is capable of handing two large ships of up to 5000 tons, or several smaller ships. See the lower image for that.

Internal security is fairly high throughout the port, and there are uniformed and plain clothes security personnel scattered throughout the station. Visas from Imperial citizens are handled at any of the terminals before access to the main main hub and from there to the rest of the planet.

The port also has several point defense lasers, and concourse 23 is the ground station for system defense boats that are planet-based.

Krim has 6 large cities with populations around 100-600 million, 84 moderately large cities  of 35-100 million, 392 small cities with a 2-80 million people, and thousands of smaller cities. Most cities are buried, though often have arcologies or domes above the surface. The city of Nohildu (pop. 491 million) is actually built into the cone of an impact crater.

Whew, enough for a bit. Added the part 1 to the title as I think there is always more.

And obviously I am not a follower of MOARN: Map Only As Really Needed. I just really enjoy building worlds.

So next post in the solo series: getting on Krim and following the SOLO rules as to what comes next.

Corsairs - Character Designs

So far we have a Dwarf Warrior/Mechanic, and another player wants to try a Russian/cossack type, complete with daggers, long rifle and sabers.  We've outlined the Dwarf on this post, and we'll outline the next character here.

First, he wants:

Was thinking a loud "russian/cossack type" with saber, daggers, and long rifle...charismatic and tough, average-ish intelligence, braggard and encorgable. Agile but maybe not quick.

Let's take a look at the stats block on the character sheet:

If he wants agility to be his best characteristic, he would choose nimble as a mountain goat. This gives him a 4D base for rolling success, which includes the crackshot skill for shooting that long rifle, acrobatics for agility, and skullduggery are basically the thieves skills for picking locks and sneaking about.

To be charismatic, then he would pick the witty at 3D. This gives him the lore, observation and rhetoric/oratory skills at the 3D base.

And that leaves weak as a kitten for the remaining stat, giving him a 2D for grit, sailing and swordplay.  But all is not lost: he gets to add 2 points to the 4D level, 2 points to the 3D and 1 point to the 2D skills. To increase his swordplay, I'd stick the +1 to the swordplay skill, giving him 3D for success rolls. Moving up to the 3D stats, it depends on just how witty he wants to be: he could stick both points to the oratory skill giving him the 3D + 2D for 5D on oratory rolls. Quite the witty gentleman! Finally, there are 2 points to be spread out on the 4D stat block. Probably +1 each for acrobatics and crackshot, giving him 4 + 1 or 5 dice to roll for success in each of those instances.

This microgame is limited intentionally for quick play: each of the skills has an opposing skill, and there are a very limited number of skills. This is a game for role playing, not rules lawyering or power building.

Now, on to the world building. We've already placed our Dwarf in the northern reaches, a frigid place full of sky whales, cresters and dragons. Yes, there be dragons. We've 3 empires that are not detailed out in the book other than the Alderal Empire to the east of Tebou is still mining the slowly sinking island between all three empires. I've not assigned any sort of culture to anything, wanting to see where the players want to come from. So our loud and womanizing adventurer could be from any of the three big empires, Tebou itself or someplace else as per the Dwarf. Tebou the island is only about 15,000 square miles at 157x94 or so miles, so probably not too many cultures there. I can see perhaps two or three. There is, however, an icy island in the Roche Empire. So perhaps the main culture is what he is looking for.

I'll have a session 0 the first night. I think with the character sheets I've sent out, along with the player reference sheet and the directions here (pick your stat block, 1 each for 2, 3 & 4D. Then add 2 points to the 3 & 4D stats and one for the 2D. Easiest way is to circle the stat block, then write down the +1 as below). Validating the characters is not hard as there is not a whole lot there. We'll have them get to a meet & greet and go from there.

As per an earlier email, here are a handful of ideas:

Currently do not have solid ideas about the sort of game we will play, but here is a list of some possibilities:

1. hired by a council member to investigate rumors of renewed mining of repellium (the stuff that keeps the islands floating above the Molten Sea and allows the sky ships to sail the skies)
2. you are a pirate group, Corsairs, attacking those from the other 3 empires. Make forays out of your pirate haven
3. you are members of one of the guilds and your job is to keep the sky ships running but strange things are happening at the sky docks
4. members of the militia guarding Tebou
5. members of a private group, hunting the great cresters for food, oil and teeth (aka Drifting Dragons)
6. an extended family/village from one of the smaller floating islands near Tebou, and the Empire has destroyed your island, depleting it of too much repellium so it sank too low to be habitable. All you have left are the clothes on your back and your 2 master sloop.Ready for some retribution!

So far there has been a vote for #1, which I could wrap a way around getting everyone together even if you are all not from Tebou.

Example of a filled out character stat block:

Corsairs - Dwarves?

While the setting seems to want to restrict itself to a human-centric playground, there is nothing to indicate we can't have some fantasy tropes as well.  One of my players sent me this really cool image and I want to accommodate him, plus riding flying whales (or cresters!) looks to be fun!

So while that may be an underwater scene in the original context, we now have Dwarves riding sky whales! And playing some more with mapping, they come from a northern floating island in the northern reaches of the Molten Sea. So far north that there is even ice despite the literally molten sea far below. While most of the humans use the sky ships. in this region sky whales are a thing. Though they also have ships.

So up north on the big map there were some islands that have ice it looked like, so here is one, home of this character. The island itself is less than 100x100 miles, and is really only livable in the southern part below the great cliffs. Yet ruins in the wastelands indicate they used to live further north, and in fact, those ruins have the remains of sky ship building facilities.

The native people are part of a larger loose confederation of a few more islands, and while the majority of them are Dwarves in the classic fantasy style, there are a few humans as well. They are a stoic race of engineers, though more in the vein of mining minerals other than the repellium that keeps their island afloat.  The empires to the south rarely interfere that far north: the travel is treacherous for sky ships and more than one has been lost. And they ride the mighty sky whales. And here there be dragons. Like Australia way back before the Pleistocene era , the flying fauna up north seems to grow a good deal larger than the rest of the islands.

From the player:

 I would kind of like to play that guy. Some kind of warrior/mechanic.

And in using the One Page Lore Fantasy Folk from Jesse Galena to give some info about our fine Dwarven race which we can pick and choose:

Dwarves  are  generally  stout,  strong,  and  dense.  Their compact  form  perfectly  fits  moving  around  tight  spaces. Their  dense  bodies  allow  them  to  have  impressive  bursts of   power,  which  aids  them  in  any  number  of   tasks.  The tallest dwarves usually don't surpass 4 ft., but often weigh twice as much as other people of  their size.

and:

Dwarves can see just as well in light as they can in the dark. They are colorblind and have impeccable vision close up. However, this comes at a cost. Dwarves are almost always nearsighted. In addition,  simply  because they can see in the dark doesn't mean they’re perceptive. Their sense of smell is often a dwarf’s most powerful sense.  Being able to sniff out exact ingredients, both    flavorful and dangerous, in food and drink is a common trait. Tasting it can offer an even greater amount of details. Some dwarves claim they can read the rings of a tree just by smelling it. Since  mites use pheromones to communicate, paths where many mites recently passed through or having several mites close by can disrupt a dwarf’s ability to smell what is around them.

There are some potential advantages and disadvantages. For Corsairs, I think this translates to being might as a lion for the 4D stat, and the others can be chosen. This means the skills of Grit, Sailing and Swordplay roll at least 4 dice to see how they do. That also feeds in with the sailing part, as those northern islands have all sorts of not only treacherous wind currents, but full sized dragons and the sky whales they eat and the Dwarfs ride. They would also be a bull in the China shop due a lack of finesse, as per the 1 page guide: Stout - maneuverability is not as easy as standing strong.

A note on the sky whales. They cannot go too far south. Between warming airs and winds not being as fierce, they lose mobility. And the dust mites they eat can't survive that far south either. The Dwarves have never gone conquering on the sky whales, though there are rumors about breeding smaller whales that can survive warmer temperatures.

Blog Overview Father's Day Edition

I've added the tags to the right now, so that if you want to get all the solo game posts, you can select that tag. I've gone back & retagged a couple of post, and will try to do better in case you want to be able to find specific posts. This will also allow readers to follow specific games, assuming I have a game title such as the Big Wreck (the last Traveller game).

Not that I've ever done a state of the blog but the statistics give some interesting pictures of what sort of machine and browser they are using, as well as where from. It is interesting that a lot more Macs and Safari users at least look at the blog. Way back when I linked to GooglePlus there was a significant number of Macs but I want to say more Window machines. It was nice to drive a bit of traffic to this blog for a bit of an ego boost.

I used a Mac for work the last 3 years, a Windows for personal and now work as I am working from home and can do everything on it now that Windows supports Linux a lot better (we use Ruby On Rails, and while I am not yet there, I do have it all set up now on Windows / Ubuntu). I've also used Linux and Unix for a while, and Datapoint's RMS Operating system for almost a decade. Which I've mostly forgotten. Anyway - interesting view for me.

If you look at the world map, mostly the US at 148, with 1 from Canada, 1 from Russia, 7 from Germany (I've heard really good things about the German version Traveller), 3 from Great Britain, and looks like 1 from Romania. So cool to have an international audience, though I would not be surprised if some were bots.

I have put out a number of posts this weekend. I've had to do a bit of work, but most of that is watching and more a moral support thing. So I have had a bit more time in front of the computer. One of the downfalls of having the only Windows PC in the company is that the new VPN is causing us issues. I messed around a bit too much and had to reset my computer to a previous checkpoint. Hopefully it is something simple, otherwise I'll have to go to the office and get my Mac and figure a place on my overly crowded desk to put it on to work with. 

And finally, for any fathers out there: Happy Father's Day! Being a parent is the best and most scary thing a person can do!

Corsairs = Tebou

Tebou is the floating island between empires, and is slowly being literally mined to death. The repellium mines, which allow not only the ships to sail the skies but keep the islands above the churning Molten Seas, are being mined by agents of the various empires, the local council of Tebou having been bought off.

I think we'll start with a a smaller floating island, Danteto. This fierce island is next to a perpetual spout of repellium spewing from the roiling flames far below. Traversing to this island takes skill and bravery, and the small island has only a few families. What leads them to live here are the dragonets: these small, scaled flying beasts have roosts all over this rocky island. Although barely 15 miles across, there are some small farms dotting the islands. One family is trying to capture the repellium gases, and have some prototype airships unlike any of the older sky ships. Using copper vats, these ships are slower than the sailing ships and cannot carry as much. But they have a higher ceiling than the sky ships and do not require mining teh repellium from the islands.

Our characters may be from here or Tebou. If from Tebou, they may see those from Dantento as old fashioned and just odd. Those from Dantento will see those from Tebou as pretentious more often than not.

Tebou is governed by the Council of Governers. Of the dozen councilors, there are rumors in the population that a couple may be living larger than they should. Below the Council are the various guilds, from the shipping guild to the mining guild. These guilds carry a lot of weight with the council, as well as supplying the workforces necessary to carry out any of the councils demands.

Tebou is about 154 by 97 miles and has a few distinct landscapes. A central range of mountains lies on the western side. The western side has the vast Cahill Grasslands, where the bison roam that provide most of the meat for the island. Seaberry is the western-most outpost, a large guard station with a few sky ships, and is the staging area for shipping bison not only across the island to the capital at Deathorp, but to other islands and villages on some of the smaller islands.

Coastone sits at the base of the Spire, a vast resource of repellium over the years. Despite bans from the Council, there are still active mines present. The Western Shoals are dozens of small islands, with dangerous wind currents making travel dangerous. As per the Eastern Shoals, it is known as a pirate haven with several small pirate bases operating out of them. Timber and fresh food is available and carefully tendered to keep the islands alive. Larger wild dragonets tend to roost in these areas, with some having wingspans more than 20 feet across. They are hunted as are the cresters. Cresters are from a board game that should show up in a few months, with flying whaler ships hunting them. It has the same feel as Corsairs I think. Windward. I may be able to use that game for more than just the game: I can see Corsairs using the minis and maybe some of the rules for hunting, and Traveller can visit a gas giant sort of like Bespin where there are air ships that are just a lot cheaper than grav ships for hunting and all that. Could even drop The Fantasy Trip here via a portal.

The major farmlands are to the south of the grasslands. The western side of the island is wetter - the winds tend to drop the moisture before crossing the mountains.

The eastnern side of the island also has some significant farmlands but use a lot more irrigation and take advantage of the natural lake. The center of the island has a sparse desert below the Great Peak, another source of repellium that is guarded more closely.

Getting late. I'll probably add more later about the way the world works and why the players will want to venture forth.

Corsairs - RPG Overview

Corsairs is an RPG I backed on Kickstarter, and I am sure will be available either on the site for Caradoc Games or DriveThru. It is a sky pirate sort of game where islands float above the Molten Sea. Mining too much of the repellium causes the islands to sink further and may cause them to be lost. The ability to craft these sky vessels has been lost over the years, so the ships are older and often passed down through the family.

You are a Corsair, raiding the shipping lanes and doing your darndest to ruin the trade in repellium. It takes daring, courage, and more than a little luck to survive, but survive you must, for there is war brewing and riches to be made! Corsairs is a micro-RPG designed for short campaigns and one-off adventures.

And for a bit of history:

The year is 486, and your slice of the world is Teboa, one of a hundred islands which float above the Molten Sea. They float thanks to repellium; a wonderful element that is used to power the sky ships. Sky ships are no longer made, such knowledge has passed from the world, and mining repellium has become dangerous. A century of mining has caused Teboa to sink. If it sinks much lower, it will perish. Mining magnates from the Alderil Empire don’t care a whiff. With their inestimable wealth they have bought and sold enough officials to do as they please. Mining continues apace, heedless of the protestations of the Council of Governors. Alderil traders, backed by noble houses and a powerful navy are lining their pockets with the future ashes of your world!

I'll be running a game in this in the next few weeks, so I need to read up a bit more on the mechanics and create an adventure. The rulebook itself is all of 36 pages and is aiming for a swashbuckling, steampunk sort of worldview and game. Pistols and rifles are one shot apiece, so we do have some arms but this does aim for a pirate feel.

It requires 6 sided dice, and uses pools. So your character has 3 basic stats, each of which has 3 skills. Rolls use 2, 3 or 4 dice for a success roll. where 4+ is a success. There may be opposing dice that may subtract from your success as well, such as trying to swing across between ships in a heavy downpour.  While you can only pick one of each level stat for your character, you do get a few extra skill points to add, so there is more customization than initially appears. It seems a simpler version of how Shadowrun lets you pick various levels of things. With only three it is easy to keep in mind (I don't think I ever got that 5th edition Shadowrun character right, and that rule book was horrible!). There are some simple experience points to improve skills up to a 3 max. There is luck, being charmed or cursed, and the players actually roll ALL the dice, needing two sets of dice of different colors. You have a 3D roll for sword fighting and your opponent 2D, so you roll 5, 3 for you and 2 for your opponent, and their successes go against your successes. This would be better a table as there are fistfuls of dice to roll!

So reading the background and there are 3 major political groups, a big one and two smaller ones. The characters hail from a floating island in the middle that is slowly sinking as mining is still happening there from the big empire to the east. Characters obviously do not want their homeland (an island about 154x97 miles to give some scale to the map below) sinking so are raiding ships from the empires to prevent them from mining.

Possible adventures range from entirely on the island, attacking a new mine, having a ship to attack others before they get there, or explore with rumors of lost ships and repellium deposits on other islands. Noted in the description of travelling the skies are massive uprisings of gaseous repellium to avoid. I've added a couple of perpetual storms over a couple of the floating islands.

I'll have to see what sort of game the group wants to play. We've enough for a small ship's crew probably. And the game does come with some character sheets and player help sheets, so I can email those to the players at least. Just have to come up with a good hook.

Solo - The Journey Continues

I'll really need a recap as it has been some time since I last managed to get a round in.

First, this is a MTU universe (My Traveller Universe) based on my old college notes. Back before there was much of an Imperium designed and you rolled your own. We are in the D'Arlee Quadrant which is somewhere on the edge of the Great Rift (as I have these giant poster maps, though I may end up moving it again, further out). While a chunk of this quadrant (4 subsectors) is Imperial, most is not. There are a couple of other political groups here, the big one being the League of Planets. It has its own navy and police forces, and less of a structured starport system - no Starport Authority.

My goal in this was to expand a bit and play with the rules, especially some of the newer ones in T5 as well as the Cepheus systems.

So, quick recap: our main character is:
Malik Catillion, age 34, Jounalist, Senior Staff writer (4 terms)
699B96
Art (Writing 2), Carouse 0, Deception 0, Drive 0, Flyer 0, Persuade 0, Steward 0, Language 1, Electronics (Comm 1, Sensors 1), Investigate 1, Streetwise 0.

He is off to do another round of reporting but this time for himself. Basically, a future blogger that will have to make a living as he goes around the universe. He is now entering the political sphere of the League of Planets, an independent group of planets at the edge of Imperial Space. Malik is also part of the crew for the No Refunds, a trader that is part of the Antares Ship Builders and Trade Speculators group. This group is sort of like the trucking companies where the drivers own their own rigs: they pay a small portion to the mother company, but also get access to brokers and some services in various systems. It is also a news gathering system: not only physical cargos get around but so do informational ones. Brokers often live by the rumors and reports from the surrounding systems. The No Refunds is a Lakota class cargo ship based on one of Ryan Wolf's ships. See this post for details. And in finding out that the tonnage he uses is standard tonnage where 1 ton - 100 cubic feet, that ship is actually 650 dTons. I will have to update all that at some point. But at least now I have a solid tonnage based on the actual volume! His 3D modeling calculates all that for him, so it should be pretty darn accurate!

They have just jumped from Preacep to Krim, and so I need to roll on the on board events table: ship malfunction! Not good news when you are in the middle of an alternate universe protected only by a hydrogen bubble!  Gas build-up. What does a gas build-up mean? There is an entry for waste disposal problems, so ruling out the bathrooms are having issues. We can go with another reactant gas on-board that is used for processing in the life support system (there has to be a reason life support is so expensive in Traveller. So we'll need a plan to deal with this.

First, roll to see how many days before this becomes a problem. 1d6 = 6 days. So, not a pressing event but it will be an issue before we get out of jump. I'll go with a fool-proof plan then: we have plenty of time to check and recheck what needs to be done. However, the gas system is highly pressurized and this is a dangerous level as a result of that. This is my attempt to balance things out a bit. So, roll for the plan with a 6+. However, we do have an excellent engineer on board:

Lando Dietgard, 697BA8, age 29, Engineer
Engineer (Jump 3, Man-2, Power-1, Life Support-1), Carousing-1, Sensors (Comms-1), Trade (Space Construction-1), Advocate-1

I'll go with a +1, leaving us with a 5+ for the plan. Rolled a 7, so we make it and the gas build-up is corrected. As a result, there is a good consequence, and we get a rumor or discover a valuable piece of information. What could we have found in the middle of jump? Antares is a fairly large corporation based in the Imperium. Perhaps there is some tracking devices added to the system. While tracking cannot work in interstellar distances, and Traveller has no FTL communication other than via ships, a tracking device could be used to track where the ship has gone, and if it is connected to any of the sensors, be able to know more about the surrounding areas. So is this a nefarious plot of some sort by the home office? Was this added at Preacep where there was that delay? And was it Antares, the Imperium or some other group? There are no easy indicators. Lando's reaction roll to finding this is 8: middling but not too upset (2D6 Classic Traveller reaction roll, where 2 = attack and 12 = hi, friend). Out of all the characters once this is brought to everyone's attention, the worst response was a 5. So no out-and-out anger. According to our good captain, this is pretty much expected behaviour. Nonetheless, the device is detached and flushed out to the jump space void.

Lynwood Laux 776DB6, age 48, ship Captain
Pilot (Spacecraft-3, Small craft-1, Capital Ships-1), Admin-1, Carouse-1, Electronics (Comms-1, Remote Ops-1, Sensors-1), Flyer (Grav-1), Gun (Slug-1), Gunner (Turret-1), Leadership-1, Melee (Blade-1), Tactics (Naval-1), Animals-0, Athletics-0, Language-0, Vacc Suit-1

And yes, I am digging back through the blog to get all the character stats back. Going to print up a hard-copy for a folder to better track this info.

Okay, enough for this initial foray back to the solo game. Next session, which may well be tonight, will be going through the character-character interactions during the jump. Which is why I need my list of characters! While probably not singing Kumbyah or anything, we'll see.

And closing with a modified T5 form for Krim.

Upcoming Events

I need to get back to a lot of things...

During the quarantine I've actually been busier working than not: being a developer in my current company means this is a time to get our multi-year backlog moving as most of the other staff were not going to be busy. Then they were, and so there went what we thought would be a time to get caught up. We will never catch up.

As a direct result of working from home, though, I spend a LOT of time in front of my computer. And my free time I want to be away from the computer, so you can see the conundrum. This is entirely unlike that time a decade or more ago when I got laid off, and spent a few hours each day working on the Traveller Tracker software and actually got it basically working, and in a way other people were using. Someone even forked the project. No idea where that ended up.

Anyway, I do have several general goals.

Software

Traveller Tracker

Turns out we can now do a single .exe for users with the latest .Net updates. So my procrastination may be paying off. I've not touched it much since starting a .Net Core version. It has basic functionality for ship classes and ships, but it is ugly. I want something pretty and useful. So I will start that up again at some point. Not sure when yet.

Ruby Free Trader

I've gotten as far as cloning the Ruby Free Trader program, a Ruby iteration of what I was trying to do. Met up this guy over on COTI, and finally made that step last week. I need to look it over and see one of the to-do things, make a branch and see if I can do something. But as he mentioned, a small step is still a step!

Games

Traveller Solo

It has been more than 6+ months since I last took that up. I would like to try to restart that, expand out my Traveller universe, and play with the rules. There has been an interesting melee discussion over on COTI with some cool ways of handling person to person combat in Traveller. I will be running a Traveller game with live people again at some point, but I can still practice. Plus I like my MTU.

The Fantasy Trip

We were managing to play via Skype most Sundays. But the last few weeks we've not managed to get together. Part of that is due to the father building a studio/gym/workshop/game room in his back yard. So when that is done, we'll be able to play face to face probably. Which brings us to the 2nd reason the games have drifted off: TFT is really a tactical game when it comes to combat, and while the screen sharing sort of works, the boys I think really need the 3D version with the minis and all that. Plus face to face is a lot better - they don't have a webcam so we could not see each other either. I need to tailor the games to everyone, though I am also hoping to get the Monday night crew back to a Labyrinth game, either with their old characters or start all over.

Microlite Supers

Playing a really fun superhero game for the Monday group. I am playing a space cat which is a lot more fun than I would have thought. 

His background:

And no, humans cannot completely pronounce his name as there is a bit of body language requiring a tail and mobile ears. Sadly he often just goes by Yummy which is the best approximation humans can get. While not happy, it was easy to train humans to call him that rather than his proper name, Not sure when I'll more fully introduce myself yet.

Yumijan’ Ul’intosa Imuurikasonshinn

Coming from the League of Planets, Yumijan’ is a relatively young member of the League Of Planets (cue Wonder Woman TV series, and Andros as an observer. As I am watching the old series that came up in season 1 and seemed appropriate to borrow). Young being less than 2000 years old. He came to Earth in the Middle Ages, glad he was not a black cat for the times. Seeing that some people, despite overwhelming odds, still managed to care for others, he felt there was something in humanity worth protecting and helping. He as been seen with Ghandi, Kennedy, King and other proponents of peace towards all humanity. He tried with King Henry but that never went well.

Imbued with the cosmic power, he has moved subtly throughout the ages, helping those who help others, usually sight unseen. In the recent uprising, when he saw Rocky, Honey Badger & Melody helping those escape, he joined in and managed to get a collar on as well. He will be helping and guarding them as best he can, but often behind the scenes.

He is a pacifist but, like the Earth cat, can turn on a dime when he feels a more aggressive approach is necessary. And despite being on Earth for almost 1000 years, humans can still confound him.

The League of Planets watches growing civilizations. If the planet becomes a threat to the galaxy, they will step in. The send observers are sent in to watch over centuries, and hopefully guide the planet to a peaceful coexistence to join in with the greater universe when they are ready. Earth has been a contentious system, with a few on the Council ready to have humanity start all over. Those dinosaurs – they had an advanced society that promoted violence and were on the cusp of space flight. A few volcanoes and asteroids stopped them. 

Corsairs

A sky pirate RPG I got via Kickstarter that oddly meshes well with the Windward game I am getting at some point this year. I've been reading a bit up on the rules and this will be the next game the Monday group plays. Argh!

Zombicide:Invader

The SF version of Zombicide. My son & I have played 3 rounds: the intro, then lost mission 1, replayed and won mission 1. It is a lot of fun and easy to understand most of the rules. Plus I've painted a few of those minis and they actually came out well.

Wait, there is more

I want to get better at the various mapping software I have. Just have to take the time to read and watch tutorials. 

I want to get better at painting minis. As above, just takes practice, time and watching and reading tutorials. And as I have a few hundred minis showing up in less than a year I will have plenty to practice on!

The Fantasy Trip: 2 Paladins of Mim

Mim, God of Rains. has a larger following among Dwarves, yet there is not a lack of others who worship this giver of the rains. His Goddess sister-in-Law, Blion Goddes of  Lightening, would seem to be a more fitting partner than her sister Bizma, Goddess of Fire, yet Mim is married to Bizma. Sometimes I do wonder what I was thinking back in college, but perhaps opposites do attract.

Regardless, here is an attempt to give an example of the Paladins of Mim. Mim is not a stickler for the rituals, and is as wild as a summer storm crossing the grasslands of Morta. In the Yoll'Najj Range, south of the Kalor Desert, is the monastery, The Sacred Vine. Seated at the mouth of the Jade Rill which eventually flows to the Cutting Fields and the Mycon Swamps, it is a Dwarven monastery carved into the very range itself, with chambers deep in the bedrock. The massive stone doors have vines carved into them, with a cross and shield in the center of each.

The monastery has one of the largest libraries devoted to Mim, but also a variety of other texts, both mundane, and magical, are in the three story library chambers. Both wizards and clerics are here, along with a large supporting staff of monks, cooks, gardeners and others. It also has a strong martial arts training facility to learn the fighting skills necessary to be a Paladin of Mim. While devoted to Mim, it is also a source of employment for the few nearby villages. While winters can be harsh, the summers in the mountains bring about fresh air and cool temperatures. Some peaks never lose their snow in the shadows.  Additionally, there is an armory and three Dwarven blacksmiths that forge the mystical armor for the Paladins of Mim.

A new applicant to the monastery is a novice. Then the acolytes, then it depends on where the character wants to go next. To be a paladin requires some more worldly arts and trains more heavily in the combat arts but still has the priestly aspects to spread about the glory of Mim.

Paladins train at least a year to reach acolyte level. This involves both physical and scholastic training. Paladins of Mim often end up as healers despite the bevy of weapons they are trained in. The Sacred Vine promotes the healing more through culinary arts - the meal spell is one that many paladins in training pick up.

After they achieve acolyte level, they are often given a year for a holy sojourn, visiting other monasteries and shrines, and doing the upkeep for those locations. Shrines to Mim are often buried deep in woods and out of the way places, but always by running water. Other gods and goddesses don't always get along, and often shrines are attacked by other followers from other religious or magical groups.

For a more thorough review of religious hierarchies, this is an interesting link. I may have to expand things out even more - my blogs tend to be more of a stream of conciousness than planned out.

One of the newest paladins is Heigra, a barbarian human from the Kalor Deserts north of the Sacred Vine. A young woman who made the journet through the desert to the mountain site, she has studied the last year the sacred texts, and has passed her initial training with the battle masters. She is ready for her first quest into the unknown.

Heigra, Paladin of Mim Acolyte

ST 10 DX 12 adjDX 11 IQ 10 MA 10

A rangy woman dressed in soft blue cloth armor, with a sewn knife and cross over the left breast, Heigra sports a horse bow over her back and a blessed saber of Mim at her hip. She is on her first journey from the monastery to make a circuit of the forests and swamps south to visit the villages and check on the shrines. She has in her possession an excellent map of the area with the shrines marked. Meeting her on the road on or the trails, she will be willing to share a meal along with some priestly advice about Mim. If she is alone she will move the metal equipment she carries aside and can conjure an excellent meal. 

Weapons and Armor

Horse bow (1d)

Blessed Saber of Mim (fine saber) 2d-2, gives +1DX for use

Cloth armor (stops 1 hit)

Skills

Sword

Bow Knife

Priest

Literacy

Writing

Spells

Meal

The Fantasy Trip: Paladins

After reading about Paladins and their history in D&D  and their real life history (The Smoking Wrym issue 1, one of the Kickstarter 'zines I backed and actually got around to reading last night), I was thinking about how to work that into the Fantasy Trip.

First, TFT has no classes, no automatic skills based on an arbitrary level system. Instead you gain experience and basically trade that for learning new spells, new talents or improved stats. Most players will buff up their stats, allowing them to hit more often and take more damage. But eventually they also start adding skills or spells.

A paladin is a fighter with some sort of noble cause, be it religious, political or something else. The Fantasy Trip leaves a lot of this to the individual gamers - there is no specified religions and few political groups other than what comes up in various adventures. In a way it is like proto-Traveller: it is a great sandbox to play whatever you want. Additionally, they describe how you would set up a thief character based on skills and stats: high dexterity, sneaky skills and probably at least the Lock/Knock spell.

To translate this to my world of TFT, I do have a vaguely defined set of gods and goddess (see this post) Of those I've never really delved into too much detail, except for Mim here, using another Kickstarter supplement to flush out one of my college-originated gods. So let me run with that a bit.

A paladin of Mim is more often a Dwarf than not, but he does have human followers as well. He is a god of the rains, and his symbol is often a knife on a cross. This is often emblazoned on shields and breastplate. Occasionally a trusted paladin may be carrying a holy relic, a magical item. They often will have fine armor or weapons blessed by the priests with magical enhancements.

As a fighter, the paladin is going to want a higher strength to carry big weapons, but a decent enough dexterity to actually be able to hit things. IQ gets the short shrift at least at the beginning. As with all fighters, pick a couple of weapon skills according to how you want to fight. As a GM, if the player is going the paladin route, I'd even allow for a +1 weapon (either +1 DX or +1 damage) that has the symbol engraved on it, or a +1 armor of a similar nature. Low level paladins are just your normal low level fighters, but they have a goal that should be role played for experience points. In my games I've sporadically given an extra 50 XP for players who really play their characters well. Not enough to bump anything up by itself, but added in with other XP it helps.

As the paladin to Mim gains experience and skills, there are certain spells that reflect a character of Mim. The Scour spell (IQ11) allows the player to clean an area of germs and vermin. Clean hands are a virtue as well as food you can eat without worrying about food poisoning. The magic rainstorm (IQ12) is one of Mim's favorites: when casting, a 4 will allow it to last for 24 instead of 12 turns, a 3 will not cost the player any ST to cast: Mim has gifted this to the player. Similarly, the control elemental skill, if calling a water elemental, will give the paladin a +1DX advantage, a fire elemental a -1DX. Oddly the earth elemental also gives a +1DX advantage as Mim is fond of his mother, Alamia, Goddess of Earth. The lightening spell (IQ14) is also a favorite of Mim, and has the same benefits as the magic rain spell if the player rolls well.

As for talents, beyond the wide array of weapons skills, other skills a paladin should aim for are are literacy, to be able to read the sacred scrolls; quick-draw, swimming to be immersed in the rains; shield expertise as a bonus in fighting; toughness. Your standard enhanced fighting skills. Additionally, they should also work on the healing arts to reflect the traditional laying on of hands. The physicker and master physicker skills are handy, and priest and theologian skills to promote the faith.

Here are some examples of a write-up for various items for paladins of Mim.

Sword of Mim: a +1DX blue-steeled sword that has a knife engraved on the cross-piece, the Sword of Mim is given to all paladin acolytes as they enter the world. It gives a +1DX being a finely crafted sword, but only to followers of Mim. To all others it is just a really nice sword with no advantages.

Satquil, Sword of Mim. This enchanted 2-handed sword is also made of blue steel with a gold knife engraved along the blade, and runes across the hilt. Lost for centuries, it never rusts and is always sharp. When handled by a Paladin of Mim, it gives +2DX to hit, does 3d+1 damage, and on a critical hit also does 1D of lightening damage.

Mim's Armor: +1DX chainmail fitted to the paladin, it offers 3 hits of protection but only has a -2DX adjustment. It too is made of a blue steel, and the accompanying tabard has a vine-encrusted dagger on the chest. It is given to paladins once they complete a quest from Mim.

Zadquil, Holy Armor of Mim. Made by the mystic amorourer Bizma, wife of Mim, the holy armor is fine plate armor made of blue steel, with vines engraved in gold along the edges, and a knife on the breastplate. It will stop 8 hits and has a -3DX applied. There is another spell applied that allows the armor to fit whoever is wearing it if they are a paladin for Mim.

Caphriel, Holy Relic. This branch with runes carved into it allows for 2 3D lightening blasts a day. Found by Doras Thundersword, the first cleric for Mim, this branch has been passed down for millennia to the high priests.

Cup of Mim, Holy Relic. There are several of these as most shrines to Mim will have at least one. This cup is always full of fresh rain water when a prayer to Mim is given. Smaller cups can be used 1-6 times a day, larger cups 2-12 times, and the more rare water flask, which holds about 4 cups, can be used 1-6 times a day as well.

On Blogs

Just a short note about blogging in general, and who I've linked to over in that side bar.

Web logging, or blogs, are a public facing diary of sorts, at least in my case. While there are all sorts of inspirational, educational and other sorts of blogs, I feel they are more of a shout out to the world that I am doing something that I think others may find interesting. Way back when Google+ was a thing I'd occasionally post my blog there and generally got a favorable and honestly a feel good from the community at large - it was almost addictive.

Anyway, I don't read many blogs honestly, and this one, which started out to track any software I was writing for Traveller, has ended up to include game recaps and game resources for the games I am running. While I could have another blog, I think I', okay with things like this though I may want to change the sub-title of the blog :)

Anyways, over on the right is the list of sites I do go to on occasion. In the alphabetical order they are:

Another Traveller Blog a really fantastic source from an architect that loves Traveller. The geomorphs book PDF I use all the time to craft buildings mostly but also ships and stations. Plu she has really nice ship plans with clean lines that just yell Traveller to me.

Behind The Claw is actually a podcast of a Traveller game. I'll admit I've only listened to part of one so far, but I would like to hear how other people run games. While my players indicate they do enjoy my games, I feel I could do a lot better.

Far Future Enterprises is Marc Miller's home for FFE stuff. We'll just say it is as retro as the original Classic Traveller. He does have a more modern site as well but this one seems to be easier to get around in. Though it does open a new tab on every link. And it is where to get Traveller 5. While I still don't think there is an actual game in there, there are some amazing toolkits that I use to bolt on some extra-crunch. Not that my players really care about crunch sadly.

Mongoose Publishing of course goes to Mongoose's home page. While I do like parts of their take on Traveller, I do not like what they've done to deck plans as they are unusable and nor do I like what I think is the more British way-out-there-hey-this-could-be-like-Warhammer approach. As a personal opinion, they are more miss than hit to me.

My Traveller Universe is a seldom updated blog of a real Traveler - that guys has been all over. He has some really interesting ideas about Traveller, and apparently is into props at least as much as I am. He has not posted in a while there or on COTI, and I hope all is well.

Shawn Driscoll's Traveller Blog is of course by Shawn Driscoll. He does a lot of podcasts that I have not listened to much, and does some amazing 3D works. He has different ideas about some things than I do, and often comes off as very curt or even rude, but that may just be how he is. And the world needs different views.

Sprigg's Scibblings I've just added. He is doing a page by page read & review of classic Traveller '77. I've got the '81 version I think from the Deluxe Boxed Edition (the box is barely there now). It is cool to hear his view of things, not yet being a Traveller player.  Makes me want to run a Classic game again.

The Frank GM is not a Traveller-specific blog. It is more a GM reference and aid to help GMs play better. I just need to read and apply more of the stuff I read.

Trannstar News Network is another Traveller blog with some interesting house rules and musings. I believe I found this originally via the COTI starport, a listing of web sites for Traveller. Huh - wonder if I should ask the mods to add me? though my blog is not 100% Traveller.

Traveller Advetnures seems like it is a guy like me: gets to play sporadically and likes to play with Traveller. He is also doing a solo adventure, which reminds me that I need to restart that sometime. Plus apparently I am linked on his blog - whenever I find that, I add their link as well to my blog. Back to the web rings!

Traveller Jim seemes to have a lot of Traveller equipment and stuff, though now that I am looking at it, my link is actually broken and he has a post from a few years in the future! But he seems to be a crunchy player. I'd really like to know how well that translates into game play.

TravellerRPG is COTI, Citizens of the Imperium. I actually pay a bit each year for this amazing resource. Though the software behind the site is creaking badly, and it is not always as vibrant and active as it was, there are still so many great conversations there.

Zhodani Base is another great resource as well as a link to other great resources. THey are a lot more active than I am with Traveller. Lots of free stuff, rules, ideas and images. I am a sucker for good deck plans.

One site I've not added but will is the Traveller Map. That is such an amazing site I could spend way too much time in there! Plus he has easy to use APIs - all my stellar maps come from there as I can import my own sector data to generate the classic looking maps. I will probably add it as it is such a cool thing - Imperial Maps. I've even done the jump route between systems to generate handouts for players indicating the shortest J2 route between systems. So much coolenss!